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Protecting Your Cowherd From Devastating Diseases

There are several diseases cow-calf producers should concentrate on keeping out of their herd by having a good biosecurity program. Kansas State University Veterinarian Dr. Greg Hanzilcek, serves as the director of Production Animal Field Investigations. Hanzilcek said there are a couple of extremely important diseases that producers need to pay attention to, especially Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) and Trichomoniasis. These diseases can be introduced from animals being brought into a herd from an outside source.

"They are from animals that we purchased from and we have actually brought in a disease that our herd hasn't had before," Hanzilcek said. "BVD and Trichomoniasis - those are probably two of our biggest concerns on cow-calf operations as far as purchased and as far as the negative impacts they have on the health of the herd."

In preventing BVD from entering your herd, Dr. Hanzilcek said there are several things a rancher can do to help protect herd health. If a producer is bringing in animals, he said it is important to make sure those animals are not “Persistently Infected” or PI animals.

This can be verified in an easy test where you take an ear notch out of each of the animals and send the samples to a laboratory to be tested. He said for a couple of dollars you can make sure these animals are not PI's. Even if they are not PI animals, Hanzilcek said if they have been exposed to BVD in the last week or two and they can bring that into the herd, similar to how flu spreads through exposure in the human population.

It's important that producers not only test their cattle to make sure they are not PI's, but also isolate them from the rest of the herd for 30 to 45 days. If you are bringing in bulls or animals that are not pregnant then a simple ear notch test will ensure those animals are not PI's. If a producer is purchasing heifers or cows that are pregnant, Hanzilcek said producers will need to test the mothers as well as their babies when they are born, as most PI calves are born to animals that are not PI's.
 

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